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Minister of Foreign Affairs, caused the expedition to be postponed until he had opportunity to assure the Chinese Government that what Japan is going to do in Formosa concerns only the barbarians outside the limit of Chinese administration, and that it is no intention of hers to interfere with the internal affairs of China. It is also to be taken into consideration that, if the Japanese Government does not act now, the Japanese public, much enraged as they are at the murder of the Liukiu people, might invade the island of their own accord, and thereby give rise to a state of things incompatible with the existing treaty. The Japanese Government was originally against the idea of informing the Chinese Government of their intention, and it is therefore on his own responsibility that the Ambassador makes the present communication, etc.

Yamen Ministers. ‘The raw barbarians’ have not been chastised, because they are beyond the reach of our government and culture; but as we have in our hands the reports of the Governor of Fokien, who rescued the Liukiu people, we will consult those papers, and then answer your questions.

Japanese Minister. There is not a Japanese ignorant of the murder of the Liukiu people in Formosa, as the incident has appeared in the Chinese journals; and as the Ambassador is preparing with all haste for his departure, he will certainly not wait for any later response.

Thus, having ascertained verbally (1) that China renounced the right of interference with the internal and external affairs of Corea, (2) that she did not object to calling the natives of Liukiu Japanese subjects, and (3) that she had no objection to Japan’s sending an expeditionary force against the Formosan savages, the Ambassador regarded the object of his mission as accomplished. He had already made a portion of his suite start for Japan on the 23rd, when on the same day Bunsho, First Minister of Tsung-li-Yamen, sent one of his subordinates to the Ambassador, and, asking excuse for the delay in arranging for the audience, earnestly entreated him to postpone his departure. The Ambassador refused to consent, telling the messenger that what a Japanese Minister had once said would be done. The messenger then told Soyejima how much Bunsho repented of his not having treated the Japanese Ambassador as he ought to have done, and that he was now determined to arrange for the audience entirely in the way indicated by the Japanese Ambassador, etc. Soyejima reluctantly consented to receive Bunsho on the morrow.

On the 24th Bunsho came to the hotel of the Ambassador, and informed him that communication had already been made to the representatives of the Powers in Peking, to the effect